Anti-Aging Advice: 99 Steps to 100 by Walter M. Bortz, M.D.

What Is the Necessary Nutrition for Living to 100?
An infinite variety of foodstuffs can supply the 70 million calories you will consume in your lifetime. Seventy million equals 25,000 apple pies, 70,000 quarts of milk or 200,000 hot dogs. No one, fortunately, would choose such a monotonous diet that also lacks the appropriate vitamins. The more varied your diet the better -- keeping the choices plentiful ensures high-quality, balanced nutrition.

Nutritional Needs: Less Can Be More
One peculiar feature of human eating habits is the dissociation between movement and food. All other creatures have to move to eat. Their survival is closely linked to their ability to find and chase down necessary vitamins. Ours depends mainly on our purchasing power.

For most animals, acquiring enough nutrition is a problem; for us, it's the opposite -- we have to avoid taking in more than our bodies require. How much you need depends on the exercise you get. Bigger, younger and more active people have the advantage. Because of their higher caloric needs, they have more diet options. Smaller, older people who are less active, on the other hand, must plan their diets with care. But no matter what your size or age, the more you move, the better your body will utilize your vitamin and mineral intake.

Overcome Obstacles
A number of obstacles -- physical, social and psychological -- can stand in the way of eating to reach 100. Financial hardship, isolation, depression or even poor dentures all can hinder efforts to maintain a healthy diet. Practical solutions to these situations may be difficult, yet it's essential to confront these post-retirement obstacles head-on. For example, if ill-fitting dentures threaten to lop a decade off your life, tackle the problem intelligently and boldly. When it comes to anti-aging strategies, the direct approach is best.

Make the Diet and Nutrition Experts Work for You
Our personal knowledge of nutrition is far from complete. We may think we know what a good diet is for a 20-year-old, but is it the same for a 40-, 60- or 100-year-old? Fortunately, science is making us more educated consumers. Ignorance is giving way to increasingly informed choices, and new food labels provide us with diet and nutrition data that's essential for our changing bodies.

Nutritional Bottom Line
Keep your diet varied, and keep moving!

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